THE Eastern Cape government has effectively brushed off and defied President Jacob Zuma when it decided to kick out the task team he sent to fix the collapsing education system in the province.
The decision by the Eastern Cape cabinet that the task team "must leave the province" was revealed in a report by Parliament's select committee on education and recreation.
The report was tabled in the National Assembly yesterday.
Earlier this week, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said the Cabinet's plan to take over the Eastern Cape education department had flopped because the province "created a state of paralysis by just not cooperating with the national department".
But provincial government spokesperson Mahlubandile Qwase said the Eastern Cape cabinet had not taken any decision to hamper national government's work.
"There is no such resolution by the executive council, which has no intention to undermine the authority of the cabinet," Qwase said.
But the report tabled yesterday found that the provincial cabinet "is fed-up with the instability within the province, particularly with regard to the intervention, to an extent that it took a resolution that the intervention task team must leave the province until a political decision has been taken on the intervention".
This is likely to pose serious problems for Zuma, who is set to visit the province next week to find out why it is not cooperating with the heavyweight cabinet task team he appointed to clean up the province's education department.
According to Motshekga, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan wanted the province to axe education head of department Modidima Maanya, but the province had refused.
During their three-day visit last week, the select committee concluded that "the main cause of the problem to the smooth running of the intervention is the tug-of-war between the head of the task team and the HOD [Maanya]".
They also interviewed Maanya, who told them that the national team had created a "state of confusion" by making announcements without consulting him.
According to Maanya, "the manner of implementation undermines various key activities of the plans approved by the executive council prior to the intervention and might lead to a collapse of the system" says the report. Maanya also complained that after staff heard the news in the media that Motshekga was taking over, they had started writing letters directly to him to have their disciplinary hearings cancelled.